Three Venezuelan generals arrested for attempted coup

Riots

Newscast Media CARACAS—Venezuela has arrested three air force generals accused
of plotting a coup in league with opposition politicians during the country’s rumbling
civil unrest, the president said a day ago.

The move follows weeks of violence around anti-government protests that have killed
36 people in the nation’s worst unrest for a decade.

“Last night we captured three generals … who tried to raise the air force against the
legitimate, constitutional government,” President Nicolas Maduro said on state TV
during a meeting with South American foreign ministers in Caracas.

He did not name the officers, but said the plot was revealed by colleagues of the
generals who were “alarmed” when they heard of the conspiracy. The three were now
in custody of military courts.

“This group has direct links with sectors of the opposition. They were saying that this
would be the decisive week … in the belief that Venezuela did not know how to
defend itself.”

Hardline protesters are demanding that Maduro resign, while he says they are seeking
a coup like the one 12 years ago that briefly ousted his predecessor and mentor, the
late Hugo Chavez.

“What would happen in the United States if a group said they were going to start
something in the United States so that President Obama leaves, resigns, to change
the constitutional government of the United States?” Maduro asked. “Surely, the
state would react, would use all the force that the law gives it to re-establish order
and to put those who are against the Constitution where they belong.”

The numbers in the streets are far fewer than those who turned out back then,
however, and there have been no signs that the current turmoil could force Maduro
from office.

The demonstrations began in February with sporadic rallies by university students.
They intensified after three people were shot dead after a Feb. 12 opposition rally in
the capital.